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Lm Chandra 

Editor 
Hindustan Gadar 

San Francisco 
California 

U. S. A. 




A REPLY TO 

Austin 
Chamberlain 

Secretary of State for India 

Lord 
Hardinge 

Former Viceroy of India 

Lord 
Islington 

Under Secretary of State 
for India 

AND OTHERS 



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INDIA 
AGAINST BRITAIN 

A Reply to 

Austin Chamberlain^ 

Secretary of State for India; 

Lord Hardinge^ 

Former Viceroy of India; 

Lord Islington^ 

Under Secretary of State for India, 
AND OTHERS 



BY 

RAM CHANDRA 

Editor Hindustan Gadar 
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 

U. S. A. 



With Illustrations \ 



v-'\vw"-, 






Dedicated 
to the 

Martyrs 

Who haFve gi'ven their li^es 
for the freedom of India. 





Kartar Singh 



Gurdit Singh 



'- M 


Hh. 


^ 


m 




pi 


! 


y 




Kanshi Ram 



Amir Chand Rahmat Ali Shah 




Sohan Lai 



V. G. Pingle 



Jiwan Singh 




Jagat Singh Kehar Singh 

The above are among the 400 who have been hanged 
during 1915 and 1916. 



1. 

2. 
3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 
10. 
11. 

12. 

13. 
14. 

Phi 

Phi 

Phi 


CONTENTS 


Page 
Preface 5 


Answer to Austin Chamberlain — New York Sun 7 


Answer to Austin Chamherlam— Springfield Republican 15 

Answer to Lord Hardinge — New York Times 22 

Answer to Lord Hardinge —American Independent 25 

Answer to Sydney Brooks —North American Review 26 

Answer to Lord Islington — Issue and Events 29 


Hindu Princes —Boston Advertiser 33 

Sir Francis Younghusband —Issue and Events 37 

Answer to Daljit Singh —Spokesman Review 41 

Tranquillity of India is the Tranquillity of a Prison— 44 
San Francisco Examiner 44 


Hindus Hanged. History of Gadar. The Political 

Parties in India 48 

Looting by the British —Boston Advertiser 57 

Reliability (?) of English Rule —Boston Advertiser 61 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

no No. 1. Revolutionists Executed 

1. Gurdit Singh 6. Sohan Lai 

2. Kartar Singh 7. V. G. Pingle 

3. Kanshi Ram 8. Jiwan Singh 

4. Amir Chand 9. Jagat Singh 

5. Rahmat Ali Shah 10. Kehar Singh 

7to No. 2. 

Showing Envelopes bearing the Seal of "Martial Law" 
and ** Opened by the Censor ". 


no No. 3. Imprisoned for Life 

1. Jagat Ram 7. Piyara Singh 

2. Nidhan Singh 8. Sohan Singh 

3. Prof. Parmanand 9. Besa Kha Singh 

4. Jowala Singh 10. Inder Singh 

5. Kesar Singh 11. Udaham Singh 

6. Parithvi Singh 12. Mangal Singh 



PREFACE 




HE OUTBREAK of the European war was the 

signal for British Imperialists to inundate 

the world with a flood of false and misleading 

statements regarding the political situation in 

India. The world was told that India was 

palpitating with ''loyalty" to her British 

masters, and that British rule was regarded 

by her as a Heaven-sent blessing. The people 

of India had no control over Renter's or any 

other news agencies. It was impossible for 

them to prevent the publication of these statements, and they 

knew it would be futile to make protest at that stage with 

imperial authority. 

Before the European war was two months old, British 
soldiers had opened fire (Sept. 30, 1914) at Budge Budge- 
two miles from Calcutta— upon the 300 Hindus who had 
been refused entrance to Canada. Events now followed in 
rapid succession: The rebellion at Singapore, the rising 
at Ceylon, the series of guerrilla depredations in Bengal and 
the Punjab, the fighting on the Northwestern Frontier and 
elsewhere. But the world at large heard only very faint 
and confusing reports of w^hat was happening in India. 

"The Hindustan Gadar" considered it an imperative duty 
to place the truth regarding India before the people of the 
United States. The leading American newspapers and maga- 
zines, with their characteristic generosity and sense of fair 
play, opened their columns to the communications issued 
by the editor of the "Gadar" This, of course, chagrined the 
British government; the truth about India must be hidden 
from the civilized world at all cost. 

Austin Chamberlain, Secretary of State for India ; Lord 
Hardinge, who had just been recalled from the Viceroyalty ; 



Lord Islington, Under-Secretary for India; and a host of 
Anglo Indian sabre-rattlers, such as Colonel Sir Francis 
Younghusband, deemed it necessary to attempt to refute 
these communications issued through the American press. 
The more important of these replies have been answered. 

This pamphlet is a collection of some of the letters and 
articles published in the leading, newspapers of the United 
States, and will enable the reader to obtain a glimpse of the 
great endeavor the people of India are making in behalf of 
human freedom and social justice. 

November 1st, 1916. 



Many in India Revolt Against England 

Says Ram Chandra in Reply to Government's Report. 
Hindus Not Living ; Dying of Starvation." 



Declares Founders of U. S. Accomplished What Natives Seek To-day 

—The New York Sun, May U, 1916 
The Sun printed last Sunday a despatch from London giving an 
interview with Austin Chamberlain, Secretary of State for India, who 
declared that the people of India ''have never heen more loyal than 
today." This is the Government viewpoint. The viewpoint of the 
revolutionists is given in the following article hy Ram Chandra, 
editor of the revolutionist organ, the ''Hindustan Gadar," published 
at San Francisco. 

Ram Chandra is the head of the radical party in India, whose 
watchword is "India for the Indians." The Hindustan Gadar is 
widely read in the Far East, but its circulation in India is forbidden 
by the British Government. 

By RAM CHANDRA. 

Momentarily the situation in India becomes more 
clouded. The political horizon has never been darker since 
1857 and the whole country is seething with incipient revo- 
lution. This is the real fact of the situation. 

From day to day revolutionary happenings, assassina- 
tions, dacoities and riots occur on the one hand and arrests, 
executions, transportations, internments on the other; all 
are hushed up by the British censor, and when they cannot 
be hushed up they are explained away. 

Does anybody doubt this? Let him examine the official 
documents issued by the British Government itself. Some- 
times, months afterward, they chronicle happenings which 
at the time of their occurrence the world was told never took 
place! 



The Government put all India under martial law by leg- 
islative enactment on March 18, 1915. The Viceroy, Lord 
Hardinge, gave the following reasons for this drastic step: 

''The Government was in possession of information 
which proved conclusively that a precautionary measure was 
absolutely essential to meet the emergencies that might arise. 
Some deluded men had during the last few months com- 
mitted acts of violence. In Bengal seditious activities, though 
not new, had become more daring. In the western Punjab 
there had also been looting and incendiarism and radical 
conflict. 

''The Government had placed a number of the leaders 
under restraint, but further powers were necessary. The 
danger could only become serious if not checked promptly." 
Revolutionists Active. 

Also: "The powers asked for (under the bill) were 
necessary for the public safety. There existed on the Pacific 
coast of America a revolutionary organization which had 
endeavored to create trouble in India by agency of private 
communication. In Bengal seditious activities, though not 
new, had become more daring and the movements were not 
unconnected." (Speech by Lord Hardinge quoted in 
"India," London, March 25.) 

Austin Chamberlain, the British Secretary of State for 
India, says in his special lengthy statement that "A very 
active revolutionary paper has been established in San Fran- 
cisco, or some point near to that city. It was called the 
"Ghadr." 

"At the outbreak of the war this paper exhorted all 
Indians in the State or elsewhere to return to India and take 
up arms against British rule. German money may have 
backed it before the war. After the war began Germany 
surely backed it. The four thousand or five thousand return- 
ing Indians formed a secret revolutionary party, and in the 
towns and villages taught sedition and attempted to seduce 
Indian soldiers. 



8 



''This revolutionary party was financed by violent rob- 
bery, its bandits raiding wealthy persons, sometimes holding 
them for ransom and committing several cruel murders. In 
the course of a month or two this organization was fully 
dealt with by the police and the Government. A special 
tribunal heard their cases. The proceedings in connection 
with this were extraordinary, being long and sensational, 
for there were over eighty defendants. Of these twenty-six 
were condemned to death and rather more than that to trans- 
portation and minor punishment. ' ' 

Mr. Chamberlain's surmise that German money may 
have backed our paper before the war is an echo of the 
British prosecuting attorney Petman's assertion at the La- 
hore revolutionary trial that the ''Hindustan Gadar knew 
three years ago about the coming war." We wish we had 
known it. It is a regular mania with the British Govern- 
ment nowadays that wherever there is found hatred or revolt 
against the British they attribute it to the Germans. By as- 
serting the implication of Germans in the revolts in India 
the British hope to persuade Japan to send her troops to 
India to help quell the outbreak. The facts about ourselves 
are well known, we are not plotters and have no secrets. All 
that we do is to educate our people regarding the blessings 
of national independence, political freedom and liberty. 

British Fear Paper. 

What Lord Hardinge calls our "private communica- 
tions" are none other than the issues of the Hindustan 
Gadar. In other words the British Government was more 
afraid of our educative and ethical propaganda than of all 
the "plots," which had been going on in India for the last 
ten years. The American people will recall that the founders 
of this great republic, who accomplished exactly what we 
hope to-day for India, were stigmatized by the British as 
' ' plotters and seditionists. ' ' 



Mr. Chamberlain says, "As a matter of fact there is ab- 
solutely no sign of revolt in India. Reports of riots are with- 
out foundation." In answer to this I would like to know, 
if India is tranquil, why it is necessary to place the whole 
country under martial law ? Why was it necessary to abolish 
all ordinary civil procedure and place the whole country 
under military authority? Why did the Government estab- 
lish as early as October, 1914, a most rigid postal censorship, 
so that every letter going to or out of India is opened and 
many letters withheld? The open and delayed letters bear 
printed slips "Opened by censor" or "Opened under martial 
law." 

The newspaper and Government reports show that since 
the war 300 newspapers have been suppressed. Five thou- 
sand men have been arrested in Multan, 4,185 in Jhang, 300 
in Lahore and several thousand in Bengal. The fact is that 
spontaneous outbreaks of the people have occurred in spite 
of, and partly on account of, the severest military rule in all 
parts of India. A notable feature of the unrest were muti- 
nies in several regiments, especially those stationed at Jhansi, 
Lahore, Ambala and Meerut. A pitched fight occurred be- 
tween the Bengal revolutionists and the military in Orrisa. 
As a consequence hundreds of revolutionists have been 
hanged at Jhansi, Lahore, Meerut, Ambala, Benares, Arah 
and other places. 

Country in Turmoil. 

Austin Chamberlain himself makes a guarded admission 
that the activities of the revolutionists threw the whole 
country into panic and turmoil. He says : ' ' There was some 
withdrawal of money from savings banks and other evi- 
dences of an unsettled state of the public mind." He also 
says that the report of the "Ghadr" that 5,000 professors, 
students, &c., were interned in India is without foundation. 
(This statement originally appeared in the New York Sun.) 



10 



-lil 4v 



^% 









•*.»«»-»4|.\/ 




Showing Envelopes bearing the Seal of Martial Law and Opened 
by the Censor 

11 



Mr. Chamberlain thinks the public will believe him on 
account of his high official position. We can only say that 
our facts have been derived from accounts published in 
India's papers. At the present time nothing can be pub- 
lished in Indian papers unless it is approved by the authori- 
ties. In spite of this a Hindu paper, the A. B. Patrika, pub- 
lished in English at Calcutta, contains the following in its 
issue of February 22, 1916, which pretty well reveals the 
present situation: 

''Not a week passes that we do not hear reports of fresh 
internments. This means universal unrest. The feeling of 
alarm and uneasiness has been heightened by the fact that 
any one may be spirited away. It is to be deeply deplored 
that the Government has not realized the amount of mischief 
which martial law is producing in the country. The more 
the list of deported is swelling the wider and more intense 
is the discontentment growing. ' ' 

A really important fact that the world does not know 
is that some of the Hindu Princes have been arrested for 
sedition. The brother of the reigning Prince of Daspala, Or- 
risa, has been sentenced to transportation for life. The 
Rajah of Kharwa, Rao Gopal Singh of Rajputana, has been 
imprisoned for two years. 

Mr. Chamberlain says: "Not a penny of increased taxa- 
tion has been laid upon India because of the war." In an- 
swer to this I will simply say that India is already taxed to 
the utmost limit of endurance. A Hindu peasant is forced 
to pay from 60 per cent to 70 per cent of his produce to the 
Government as land tax. Consequently, the Hindus have 
become so poor that the average annual income of a Hindu 
is twenty-seven rupees ($9), according to Lord Curzon, and 
fifteen rupees ($5) , according to Sir William Digby. A Hindu 
soldier, a school teacher or a policeman gets nine rupees ($3) 
a month. When invidious legislation and countervailing 
internal duties destroyed the Hindustan home industries 
40,000,000 people were thrown out of work. 



12 



Hindus Are Starving. 

One-third of India's revenue is spent on armaments and 
less than one-sixteenth is spent on education and sanitation. 
If this is the case how can the Hindus live 1 The Hindus are 
not living — they are dying. Nineteen million died of famine 
and 15,000,000 died of plague and malaria, according to 
Sir William Digby, during the ten years from 1891 to 1900. 
Hundreds of thousands died in Bankura, Bengal and Rajpu- 
tana in the famine of 1915-6 ; 7,251,257 died from plague dur- 
ing the period of time between the years 1897 and 1913. 

Sydney Brooks, an English journalist, writes in the 
North American Review that ''The British Government 
neither suggested nor invited the employment of Indian 
troops on the battlefields of Europe. It was forced upon them 
by the repeated demands of the Indian people themselves." 

This is as untrue a statement as has ever been published 
and a simple reference to facts will prove its absurdity. The 
news of the declaration of war did not reach the Indian press 
until two days after the event. Simultaneously with the 
declaration of hostilities the Government issued strict injunc- 
tions that nothing should be published or said regarding the 
movement of troops or any other subject of military signifi- 
cance. 

The Indian troops received orders for mobilization and 
immediate embarkment on August 7. In other words, Indian 
troops had been ordered to Europe long before the people 
grasped the fact that war had come. When did the people 
have the opportunity to beseech the Government that their 
men should be permitted to fight? 

On the contrary, as soon as the question of recruiting 
arose the people opposed the movement stubbornly. Not 
only were there serious rebellions among the troops them- 
selves, as at Singapore, Honkong, Rangdon and Colombo, 
but even loyal newspapers wrote that recruiting was forced 

13 " T" 



and therefore repugnant to the people. The Amarita Bazar 
of Calcutta wrote : 

"If India be self-governed under British protection the 
door to recruiting would not be so narrow as now." On 
reading this article Ramsey McDonald, M. P., exclaimed: 
' ' The clouds are already gathering ! ' ' 

What about the magnificent devotion of the ''bejew- 
elled" Hindu princes, whom Sydney Brooks calls almost in- 
dependent allies of the British? Let no one be deceived. 
Hindu princes are not ''independent" potentates. They 
have less freedom even than the man in the street in India. 
Politically they are absolutely impotent and have to obey 
the British political agents and residents stationed at their 
courts implicitly in external and internal affairs alike. There 
are some 700 Hindu princes. Out of these only a half dozen 
went to Europe. Some of these might have visited the front. 
Two fell "sick" in London; all returned safely after spend- 
ing six months abroad. A theatrical trick to deceive the 
world. 

The same was published in Philadelphia North American, 
Detroit Free Press and New York Freeman's Journal. 



14 



DISLOYALTY IN BRITISH 
INDIA. 



Statement of Conditions There During the War. 



By RAM CHANDRA 

— Springfield Republican, August 11, 1916 

Dear Sir: May I make use of the columns of your es- 
teemed paper to make a short reply to Mr. Austin Chamber- 
lain's statement, personally given by him to your London 
representatives, that all was well from the Indian point of 
view. This British statesman has ''posed" several times of 
late, for British and American public. He cites the authority 
of Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy. The Secretary of State sup- 
ports the Viceroy, and the Viceroy supports the Secretary of 
State, in their public utterances. What else do you expect? 
And yet from the speeches of this same Viceroy, and his most 
exalted colleagues, I can show that since the outbreak of 
the war, the British in India have been trembling with fear 
f o^* their safety. To cite only one instance : A farewell din- 
ner was given on October 8, 1915, at Simla, by British Civil 
and Military Officials in honor of the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge. 
In proposing the toast of the evening, Major-General Bun- 
bury, Quarter Master General of British Forces in India, 
said: 

Major- General Bunbury's Speech. 

''Many decades have passed (1857) since last a Viceroy 
was called on to pilot the good ship of India through such 
troubled waters as those which have beset her course of late, 
when that course has been between the Scylla of external 



15 



and the Charbydis of internal trouble in steering clear 

of the rocks of anarchy and evading the submarine attacks 
of sedition. The end of the voyage is not yet. There may 
be breakers ahead and storms to be weathered." 

The reply of the Viceroy is even more significant consid- 
ering his habitual diplomatic reserve and smoothness of 
speech. 

Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy, responded and said : 

"You have referred, General Bunbury, in sympathetic 
terms to the difficult times that have been my lot. Well, it 

has been very hard, very hard I, the pilot, know that 

there may still be shoals to be navigated and further storms 
to be encountered before the good ship of State arrives safely 
in port." 

How serious the situation was on the Northwest Fron- 
tier, where the hatred of the British inspired the courageous 
and freedom-loving mountaineers of the Northern Border- 
land of India to throw themselves repeatedly at the English, 
may be gathered from the following words of the Viceroy 
in the same speech. 

Fighting On the North West. 

''I need hardly remind those assembled here of the suc- 
cession of serious actions on our frontier since the outbreak 

of the war those who have taken part in them have been 

fighting the Empire's battles every whit as much as those 
who have laid down their lives on the bloody fields of Flan- 
ders or the Dardanelles." 

Theory of German Intrigue. 

' ' Of course, " says Austin Chamberlain, ' ' there was some 

revolutionary activity in the country but that was due 

to the machination of the Germans. ' ' If the uprising at Singa- 
pore, to suppress which, with the aid of the Japanese and the 
freshly imported English Territorials, it took the British at 
least a week; the ''disturbances" in Ceylon which resulted 



16 



in the courtmartial of some 500 men (according to the state- 
ment in the British Parliament made by Bonar Law and 
Steel-Maitland) ; the countless political dacoities in the towns 
and villages of India, for committing which some 5000 men 
were sent up for trial in the Punjab alone and within a few 
weeks ; then that intricate net of conspiracy whose existence 
was proved by the certain developments leading to the arrest 
and trial by special tribunals under military law, of several 
hundred revolutionists at Delhi, Bonares, Arch, Meerut, 
Lahore, Fyzabad; the courtmartials of batches after batches 
of Hindu soldiers for participation in the revolutionary move- 
ment; then, the stubborn fighting which lasted throughout 
the year on the Northwestern frontier; if all this — and the 
list is not exhausted — ^was contrived by the Germans, they 
must indeed feel proud of their achievement. Unwittingly, 
Mr. Chamberlain pays to German efficiency and diplomacy 
the highest possible compliment. If "the sedition shop," 
which Chamberlain alleges is maintained in Berlin was able 
from such a distance to raise in India "the rocks of anarchy" 
and direct "the submarine attacks of sedition;" and conjure 
up those revolutionary "storms," which so far as the 
"English pilot can see" may still "have to be weathered" — 
then, the Kaiser has been amply repaid for its maintenance. 

Each of these lies and fairy-tales about India with which 
British ministers hope to mislead their own people, their 
allies and the neutrals, covers a wrong. 

Now, what is true and right about India ? 

The truth is that the entire Hindu people, from their 
primitive human subsoil to their highest layer of aristocracy, 
abhor the cruel, incorrigible British Bureaucracy, which ex- 
ploits and persecutes India in the most relentless and in- 
human fashion. Every increase in British prestige and power 
fills them with gloom and dismay ; on the contrary, at every 
blow struck at British military, financial or commercial 
power they rejoice. Unwilling slaves, they like to see their 
masters humiliated. 



17 



Why don't they all rise in rebellion? Aye, why don't 
all the Belgians and the Serbians rise up in rebellion? The 
traditions of revolt are worthily maintained by the Hindu 
revolutionists with whom go the good wishes of the entire 
nation and whose influence is ever on the increase, in spite 
of the swaggering optimism of Austin Chamberlain and 
Augustine Birrel. 

Loyal Hindu Scores Chamberlain. 

The Honorable C. T. Chintamani, a noted 'loyalist" and 
a member of the Legislative Council of the Governor of the 
United Provinces, makes the following comment on Austin 
Chamberlain's recent outpourings: 

''Has Mr. Austin Chamberlain ever erred on the side 
of liberality? " 

Mr. Chamberlain told the House of Commons of the 
conclusive evidence of the unshakable solidarity of the prin- 
ces and people of India in defense of the Empire... that they 
have ranged themselves on the side of justice and liberty 
as opposed to the German theory of Government. The Eng- 
lish — since August, 1914, have indeed dinned it into us that 
while the Germans dearly love a perfected bureaucracy, 
Britons repose their faith in justice and liberality and na- 
tionalism. Mr. Chamberlain testified to the "determination 
of all classes and creeds in India to fulfill all possible duties 
of citizenship." Wherefore let our countrymen be recog- 
nized in fact as citizens, and not merely as subjects. The 

duties of the latter we have in full the subjection was 

there unquestionably where was the citizenship? 

Hindus in Subjection. 

The loyal paper Leader in its issue of September 
26, 1915, says: The Government has armed itself with ex- 
traordinary powers of executive action against free speaking 

and writing persons may be deported without trial and 

without their offense being made known to them, and their 
property confiscated meetings may only be held with the 



18 



permission of the magistrate (which is only granted for a 
loyal ''demonstration.") There is the law of 1908 which em- 
powers the Government to suppress association; there is the 
crowning blessing of the Press Act, there is the Conspiracy 
Act, and there is the (newly-made) all embracing De- 
fense of India Act. ...The plain and simple truth of the pres- 
ent day in India is that candid Indian publicists exercise 
their vocation by the mere sufferance of executive authority 
and at their peril. The Indian press lives under a reign of 
discretion." (Terror is the word). 

The tale of British repression is long and cannot all be 
told here. Attention must, however, be drawn to the ex- 
tremely rigorous Arms Act, which has been in vogue since 
1857. The entire population has been disarmed, so that it is 
as difficult for a Hindu to obtain a revolver or even a dagger, 
as it would be for an English suffragette to obtain Krupp 
cannons. The Irish volunteers have arms. If the Hindus 
had arms, or even sharp forks and knives, Austin Chamber- 
lain would have been telling this time a different tale. The 
mountaineers of the Northwestern corner of India did have 
a few old-fashioned rifles; and they did not fail to give the 
British a taste of "the bloody fields of Flanders or the 
Dardanelles," to use Viceregal language. 

Hindu Sinn Feiners. 

In its history of the war, glowing eloquent over India's 
' ' loyalty, ' ' the ' ' Times ' ' of London says : 

"Just as Ireland still has her Sinn Fein extremists, so 
has India still her anarchists and her fanatical bomb- 
throwers." 

The truth in this statement is that India has her Sinn 
Feiners. The falsehood of it lies in the implication that the 
Hindu revolutionists are a forlorn hope of intransigients. 
They are not ' ' anarchists ; ' ' they are nationalists ; and hence 
the whole nation is and is growing to be, with them. Whether 
the Irish Sinn Feiners command any influence in Ireland to- 



19 



day is not for us to say. But we do insist that the Hindu 
Sinn Feiners today are as influential as the Irish were in the 
days of Eobert Emmett, and at the time of the American 
Civil war. Ireland has about 100 representatives in the 
British Parliament today, and the promise of Home Rule for 
tomorrow. India has not a single vote in the British Parlia- 
ment, and no sanguine outlook for tomorrow ; not the prom- 
ise even of a Duma. 

Hindu Soldiers. 
India takes no pleasure in the fact that her sons have 
been sent to be butchered abroad. The Hindu soldiers did 
not go willingly; they simply had to. Yesterday, they had 
to go to the Transvaal, China, Soudan, Thibet, Egypt ; today 
they have to fight against the Turks and the Teutons ; tomor- 
row they may have to fight against the French or the Jap- 
anese. Mercenary troops have no choice. They, like the 
other Hindus, are a brave people. Extreme poverty, thanks 
to British administration, has compelled them to sell their 
manly virtues — in order to earn $3.00 a month for wife and 
children. They are giving their lives, not for the British 
Empire, not out of loyalty to an alien oppressor ; but for the 
sake of their starving women and children. They are per- 
verted martyrs to domestic virtue. 

Hindu Princes. 

Austin Chamberlain calls Hindu Princes *' Independent 
Rulers." Shades of Dalhousie and Lord Curzon! And the 
rest of them! To call them 'loyal' and 'independent' in the 
same breath is jugglery. Princes enjoy less "independence" 
than do the English peers. Never forget, that when a Hindu 
Prince makes a donation to the Government, it is really the 
British Political Agent or Resident at ''his court" who 
makes the donation to the Imperial Chest. In all such mat- 
ters, it is the English Resident who rules from behind the 
scenes. The war contributions made by these Princes are 
in the nature of forced levies and have ruined the states. 
The Minister of Travancore (South India State) complains 



20 



of a "heavy financial deficit" on account of the contribu- 
tions made to the English war chest. The same is true of 

all other states. 

New Taxation for War. 

"We have never asked India for any monetary contri- 
bution to the Avar," says Austin Chamberlain. This state- 
ment is a downright lie. Apart from the fact that India was 
taxed beyond the limit of recovery before — fresh taxes have 
been levied specifically for this war. Forced loans have 
been raised, and in fact, no device has been left untried to 
squeeze out of the juiceless lemon any moisture left. 

Sir William Myer in his speech introducing the measure 
for new taxation in the Imperial Legislature Council, on 
March 1, 1916, said : 

"We renewed temporary borrowings to the extent of 
seven million pounds ($35,000,000) from the Gold Standard 
Reserve, and the Secretary of State did the same in regard 
to short term India bills to a like amount. It was also 
proposed that the Secretary of State should raise about six 
and one-half million pounds ($33,000,000) by fresh borrow- 
ing at home, while we were to issue a rupee loan of three 
million pounds ($15,000,000) in 'this country.' But all this 
did not suffice, so fresh taxes must be levied. Sir William 
continues, "We intend to get an additional revenue of (a) 
two million one hundred and fifty thousand pounds ($10,750,- 
000) from customs, (b) six hundred thousand pounds 
($3,000,000) from an enhancement of the duty on salt, (c) 
nine hundred thousand pounds ($4,500,000) from an increase 
under income tax ; or in all over three million, six hundred 

thousand pounds ($18,000,000) Our present measures 

arise only through the participation of India in the 'War.' 

The total revenue last year was eighty-two million, five 
hundred thousand pounds. This year it will be eighty-six 
million, one hundred thousand pounds. Is this a small in- 
crease in taxation for a single year? 

The same was published in Boston Daily Advertiser and 
Nezv York Freeman's Journal. 



21 



WHAT YOUNG INDIA HAS 
IN MIND. 



Rumblings of Dissatisfaction the First Warning That the 
People Have a Vision of a Republican Government. 

By RAM CHANDRA 

—New York Times, July 8, 1916 

I have seen a report of a statement on the political situa- 
tion in India given by the ex- Viceroy, Hardinge of Penhurst, 
to your London correspondent. The English people them- 
selves do not accept this pronouncement at its face value. 
The comment of the London Daily News was : 

''Lord Hardinge, speaking to a foreign audience, nat- 
urally does not dwell upon the details of the great problem 
which the Government of India in the future presents, * * * 
Any one acquainted with the startling development of politi- 
cal consciousness in India during these few months * * * will 
assuredly testify to the gravity of the task before us. ' ' 

"Speaking to a foreign audience" — which contains a 
strong infusion, too, of the descendants of England's enemies 
— the Viceroy was naturally anxious to magnify the signifi- 
cance, though there was hardly any, of the artificial ' ' loyalty 
demonstrations, ' ' and to minimize the importance, the wide- 
spread nature and the potency of the revolutionary move- 
ment. Lord Hardinge, indeed, stooped to grossest misrepre- 
sentation and perversion of well-known facts. 

For instance, he said: 

' ' Of course there is a certain amount, though small com- 
paratively, of dissatisfaction and disloyalty in India. * * * 
But even so, this discontent is anarchistic rather than revo- 
lutionary. It has no constructive program. It represents 
a desire to tear down authority, not a plan to set up a new 



22 



authority. * * * The Gadar party, so called because of the 
paper of that name, which is printed abroad and introduced 
secretly, is frankly anarchistic." 

Now, as the editor of the Gadar newspaper, I repudiate 
in the most emphatic terms that the "Young India" party, 
whose organ Hardinge says our paper is, can in any sense be 
called "anarchistic." We are not anarchists, but repub- 
licans. That is why the British Government is in such fear 
of our purely ethical and educational work. Had we been 
' ' anarchists ' ' we would have openly said so. We, who have 
made great sacrifices for what we consider to be the social 
truth, would not make any secret of our principles. Our 
plan is constructive, first and last. We aim at nothing less 
than the establishment in India of a republic, a government 
of the people, by the people, for the people in India. 

Residence in the United States has not made the Hindu 
laborers who returned home "imbued with revolutionary 
ideas" (Hardinge) anarchists, but it has made them repub- 
licans. The whole country has been profoundly stirred by 
their vision of a United States of India. Following the ex- 
ample of the Italian patriots of the last century, our party 
calls itself the "Young India" party. In support of my con- 
tention that the Gadar party is not anarchical, I submit a 
quotation from the opening speech of Bevan Petman, the 
Crown Prosecutor at the trial of some men of the "Young 
India" (Gadar) party before the Lahore Special Tribunal, 
(April 26, 1915) : 

"The aim and object of this formidable conspiracy was 
to wage war on his Majesty, the King-Emperor, to overthrow 
by force the Government as by law established in India, to 
expel the British and to establish "Swedeshi" or inde- 
pendent national government in the country. ' ' 

Lord Hardinge says, however, that he "succeeded" in 
India because of his "policy of mutual trust." But his deeds 
belie his words. Who does not know, by this time, that under 
no previous Viceroy was so much official repression and 



23 



coercion practiced in India as during Hardinge's viceroyalty, 
especially since the outbreak of the war ? 

Reviewing the five years' reign of Lord Hardinge, the 
well-known loyal paper, Amerika Bazar Patrika of Calcutta, 
says: 

*'When Lord Minto left these shores he, too, was lauded 
up to the skies by a few flunkies. * * * In his farewell speech 
at the Council he (Lord Hardinge) did not conceal his con- 
tempt for those who have raised the cry of 'Home Rule for 
India ! ' within a reasonable period. * * * Have not new fet- 
ters been forged during the viceroyalty of Lord Hardinge? 
What about the Conspiracy act and the Public Safety act, 
which have spread alarm and consternation throughout the 
length and breadth of the country? What about the police 
and C. I. D. rule, which sits like a dread nightmare on the 
breasts of the people? * * * What ghastly work has the 
Press act done during the Government of Lord Hardinge? 
What about the suppression of the Comrade and Zemindar 
newspapers and the internment of their worthy editors? 
What about the arrest of men and their conviction without a 
regular trial? Was the liberty of the subject ever placed 
under a greater danger than it has been during the adminis- 
tration of the present Viceroy (Hardinge) ?" 

Thus writes one of the foremost and recognized Hindu 
leaders whom Hardinge says he had taken into confidence. 

Lord Hardinge lets the cat out of the bag himself when 
he says: "Since the outbreak of the war all political con- 
troversies concerning India have been suspended by the 
educated and political classes, with the object of not increas- 
ing the difficulties of the Government's task." This is a 
diplomatic way of saying that the Government had com- 
pelled the "educated and political classes" to suspend all 
' ' controversies ' ' in order to save themselves from any ' ' diffi- 
culties." The educated classes, thus gagged, turned to 
secret propaganda and conspiracy, as evidenced by the 



24 



formidable Benares conspiracy trial, in which the conspira- 
tors were all highly educated men, college professors, school 
teachers, &c., who had seen the ''hopelessness of accomplish- 
ing anything by constitutional methods. ' ' 

Regarding the fighting on the mountain slopes of the 
northwestern border of India, Lord Hardinge says: "It is 
true that during the last year we have had no less than seven 
very severe attacks from tribesmen just outside of our fron- 
tier." 

Lord Hardinge was the British Ambassador at Petro- 
grad during the momentous days of the Russo-Japanese war 
when the Russian revolution suddenly broke out, and he has 
evidently not failed to learn the methods of autocracy. 

The same was published in Boston Daily Advertiser. 



England Called American Revolutionists, "Anarchists". 

When the American colonists dumped the British tea 
overboard in Boston harbor rather than pay an unjust tax 
thereon. King George III wrathfully exclaimed that such 
anarchy in America must be suppressed. 

The arrogance and intolerance which marked the Brit- 
ish officials of that period has not materially diminished, 
which may explain the state of mind which prompted Lord 
Hardinge, former Viceroy of India, to declare in a recent 
published interview given to American newspapers that the 
present discontent in India is "anarchistic rather than revo- 
lutionary. ' ' 

The yearnings of the oppressed for a measure of politi- 
cal freedom always appears "anarchistic" to the oppressor. 

RAM CHANDRA. 

Reprinted from American Independence, San Francisco, 
Cal., Sept. 23, 1916. 



25 



IS INDIA LOYAL TO HER 
MASTERS? 



By RAM CHANDRA 

— North American Review, New York, June, 1916 

Sir, — There is published an article by the pen of Mr. 
Sydney Brooks in the valuable columns of The North Ameri- 
can Review for the month of April. 

Mr. Brooks writes that "since the war, India has given 
us not one hour of real anxiety. She has been admirably 
tranquil, resolute and faithful. Some disquieting incidents, 
mainly fomented by professional revolutionaries who make 
their headquarters in California, have occurred, but there 
has been absolutely nothing to justify the alarmist rumors 
which occasionally find their way into the American press. ' ' 

This is absolutely false. The New Defense of India Act, 
which was passed into law by the Viceroy's Legislative 
Council on March 18, 1915, was put into operation before 
the Lahore conspiracy case began. A notification of the 
Gazette Extraordinary of March 24th directed that section 3 
of the act shall come into force in the states of the Punjab, 
Northwestern Frontier Province, and Bengal, including more 
than one hundred million of the inhabitants of India, and 
gradually the operation of the act was extended until now 
it includes the whole of India. Prior to the arrest of a few 
immigrants returned from Canada and America, 4,185 men 
had been arrested in the district of Jhung, and since the 
Lahore conspiracy the arrest, imprisonment and execution 
of revolutionists have been numerous throughout the whole 
of India. 

Mr. Brooks writes that the trouble is fomented by "pro- 
fessional revolutionists who make their headquarters in 
California." The object of Mr. Brooks in spreading such 
misinformation seems to be twofold : First : To bring us, if 



26 



possible, into conflict with the authorities of this country. 
Second: To persuade the civilized world to believe that the 
political unrest in India has been manufactured artificially 
by the enemies of England or by a few Hindus who have 
lived abroad, and that it is not a natural reaction on the part 
of the people of India as a whole against the unbearable 
tyranny of the British Government. 

The truth of the matter is quite the reverse. The British 
in India are in peril. A correspondent of Indian a paper pub- 
lished in London, writes from Bombay that ''no Englishman 
is safe in India, and on this account English women are pre- 
paring to leave India." In the Lahore revolutionary case, 
which is being tried within the confines of the central jail, 
Lahore, before the special Military Commission appointed by 
the New Defense of India Act (which in effect establishes 
martial law) the Government prosecutor, Mr. B. Petman, 
says: ''In spite of the arrest of the majority of the leaders, 
the conspiracy continued, and further acts in pursuance of 
the conspiracy were committed. The police arrested 300, 
but nobody was willing to testify against them on account of 
fear of the revolutionists. ' ' 

Mr. Brooks states that the princes and the masses are 
fighting for their King. True it is that some Indians are 
fighting in the British Army, and a few have volunteered 
their services. But who are they? They are the Indian 
soldiers who are part of the British-Indian army in India, 
whom poverty has driven to enlist under the British Flag. 
As professional soldiers, whose interest lies in pay only, 
they are required to fight whenever wanted. Hence, when 
this great European war broke out, a large number of the 
Indian soldiers were shipped to Europe who were completely 
unaware of their proper destination. Some of them thought 
they were to be shipped from one Indian port to another, 
while others surmised that they were sailing for Africa. 

As regards the rest — who are, by the way, few in num- 
ber — they are the adventurers and place-seekers. Those few 



27 



Indian princes who are hanging around the British camp in 
France, those ''bejewelled" rajahs who are subscribing to 
the British war-relief fund and aiding in other ways: who 
are they and what are they? Always lying in the clutches 
of the tyrannical British, always compelled by brute force 
to follow at the beck and call of the British, and as such 
always subservient to the British caprice without any will 
of their own, and practically prisoners in their own palaces, 
these Indian princes have been compelled to unloosen the 
strings of their purses to help — as the Imperial mandate has 
said — a ''holy cause for humanity." Being always watched 
and suspected and never trusted by the British Government, 
and politically being absolutely impotent to exert any inde- 
pendent will of their own, these maharajas are doing what 
they are ordered to do directly or indirectly. 

The sentiments and feelings of the masses on whom the 
crushing weight of British rule falls heavily are not reflected 
in the actions of these hypocritical opportunists. The masses 
of the Indian people, hitherto inarticulate, are giving vent 
to their expression by other means, and gradually are mak- 
ing their voices heard, though hardly an echo of that voice 
reaches the outside on account of the British "love of justice 
and fair-play ! " At present their voice is entombed by the 
British censorship established to prosecute a war for "hu- 
manity. ' ' 

Everyone should bear in mind that out of a total of 700 
Hindu princes, only five went to Europe. Only three of 
these went to the front; two fell sick in London, and after 
six months they all returned to India. On the other hand, 
two Hindu princes, the brother of the reigning prince of 
Daspala, and the Raja of Kharwa, one of the Rajput States, 
have been arrested for sedition. The first was sentenced to 
transportation for life, and the other to two years' imprison- 
ment. Two hundred interned Hindus have been hanged and 
shot at Lahore, Amhala, Delhi, Meeruth, Calcutta, Orissa, 
Jhansi, etc. Five hundred have been transported for life. 



28 



and 5,000 interned without trial, including professors, stu- 
dents, physicians, priests, editors, peasants, social reformers, 
and soldiers, during the year 1915. 

The same was published in New York Times in answer to 
Sydney Brooks and in San Francisco Examiner in 
answer to Justice Spencer of Madras High Court. 



A REPLY 
TO LORD ISLINGTON. 



By RAM CHANDRA 

It would seem as though British Statesmen are vieing 
with each other in perpetration of falsehood about India. 
One of the latest to ''pose" for the American public is Lord 
Islington, the Under Secretary for India. 

In his report of a special interview with this statesman, 
the Times correspondent says : 

''Lord Islington did not suggest that any such measure 
of autonomy as obtained in Canada and South Africa could 
be granted to India. ' ' 

That must be presumably because the Hindus are in- 
capable of carrying the administration of the country. 
Strangely enough, however. Lord Islington claims that the 
entire subordinate staff of the administration is composed 
of Hindus and that some very high posts, i. e.. Judgeships 
of the provincial Supreme Courts, have been bestowed on 
the Hindus and the results of the policy are exceedingly 
satisfactory. This certainly does not prove that the Hindus 
are incapable of managing their own affairs. It proves, on 
the contrary, that while the routine drudgery as well as 
most of the intellectual work of the administration, is per- 
formed by the Hindu subordinates, the entire credit and the 
fabulous emoluments of rulership go to the British Civil 
Service. The raw English Magistrate drops in the Court 



29 



for a couple of hours, most times soaked in whiskey and 
soda, signs his name to a heap of papers, calls everybody 
around a few foul names, swears a whole lot and goes away. 
He gets for the repetition of this performance from Four 
Hundred to Two Thousand Dollars a month. His Hindu 
clerk, however, who works day and night, prepares all the 
papers for him to the last minute detail, gets from Twenty 
to Fifty Dollars a month. A Hindu getting One Hundred 
Dollars ($100) a month is considered as ranking very high, 
indeed. Such fat jobs are rewards of extraordinary clever- 
ness, devotion to the British Sirkar, a great deal of direct 
and indirect bribing to the English officials. 

Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that the 
majority of these Hindus, impecuneous, but highly intelli- 
gent, should protest against the present arrangement. Why 
should they do all the work and the ''Sahibs" get all the 
credit and the higher rewards. Who does not know in 
India, for instance, that while all the credit for the success 
of the Seistan Mission was given to the Commanding Eng- 
lish Officer, Col. McMohan, the whole arduous work was 
performed by such Hindu subordinates as Thakur Dass (of 
Delhi). 

Now, the legerdermain performance of Lord Islington 
consists in this, that he honours this system of exploiting 
the Hindu subordinates with the designation of "Hindu 
Self-Government. " Why not say as well that Russia en- 
joys a democratic constitutional form of government, be- 
cause the Cossacks with whose help the Czar rule, are Rus- 
sians themselves by nationality? 

The Hindu Princes 

"Indeed," says Lord Islington, "it is not always realized 
how far self-government has already been carried. . . . 
In the first place about one-third of the total area of our 
Indian Empire is under direct administration of the ruling 
Princes and Chiefs." Never was a more misleading state- 



30 



ment made. The casual reader would obtain from it the 
impression that the Hindu Princes have been gradually 
created by the British, since their occupation of India. The 
truth is the reverse. The Hindu Princes of the present day 
are mere shadows of their powerful ancestors. The Nizam 
of Hyderabad was once the most powerful Mohammedan 
Sovereign, whose alliance the British deemed it good luck 
to have secured against the French. What is he to-day? 
A puppet in the hands of the English. The rulers of Udai- 
pur (Hindu State) have been the proudest kings in India for 
twelve centuries. Their pride was humbled to the dust when 
at the coronation Durbar of 1911, the present ruler of Udai- 
pur was dragged, in spite of protests, to Delhi and forced to 
touch the feet of King George. What little semblance of 
self-rule the Hindu State still retains goes only to show that 
the British Conquest of India is still incomplete. The fangs 
of the oppressor are gradually tightening and not loosening 
on the Hindu Chiefs. Forty years ago the British officer 
who represents the English power at Hindu Courts was 
merely a sort of Minister or Ambassador. To-day, he is 
the real ruler of the State, the prince being merely a figure- 
head. Who does not know that when Lord Kitchener was in 
Egypt, it was he and not the Khedive who ruled over the 
country f The same is true of the smaller Kitcheners, called: 
''British Eesidents at the Hindu Courts." How the exist- 
ence of partial autonomy in Hindu States could be cited in 
proof of Britain's anxiety to give self-rule to the Hindus, 
passeth comprehension. The Hindu princes have main- 
tained what little autonomy they have against the British 
by their own astuteness and frequent show of insubordina- 
tion. It proves that the Hindus still have plenty of political 
ability left in them. It does not prove that the British are 
gradually giving away their political control in India to the 
Hindus. Neither princes nor the common people in India 
are under any illusions on the point. They know well that 
the price of Liberty is continual Vigilance and that the more 



31 



trouble they create for the British, the greater chance they 
have of maintaining what freedom they still enjoy and of 
obtaining more. 

Rajah Mehandra Pratab Singh, who is reported to have 
joined the German army against the British, according to 
Anglo-Indian papers of India, was not granted a passport 
to leave India. This is an indication of the degree of inde- 
pendence native princes possess. 

The readers of the Times will remember that in my 
letter of May 22d, 1916, I referred to the imprisonment of 
Eajah Gopal Singh Rao of Kharwa, Rajpntana. The fol- 
lowing letter, showing how he had been treated prior to his 
imprisonment, was published June 3d, 1916, in the Bombay 
Patriot and the ''Rajput Gazette" of Lehore: 

''In the Fort of Tadgah while I was interned without 
trial I heard that the police had besieged my Palace and 
searched it; that my estate had been confiscated by the 
Government; that my son had been sent away to some dis- 
tant place, and the ladies of my family had been placed 
under a rigid surveillance. I also heard that the Govern- 
ment was going to inflict on me the death sentence. * * * 

"My Palace was searched in the same way that a house 
is reached when it is about to be confiscated. The Police 
destroyed all my correspondence. My son was permitted 
to just write a note under the supervision of Mr. Phakey, 
an officer of the Criminal Investigation Department. Even 
then the Inspector of Police and his force would not desist 
from trying to enter the Zenana [the women's apartments]. 
"When my folks remonstrated the Police officer abused them 
grossly." 

"All our arms, cartridges, bullets, swords, even knives, 
were taken away. All our cattle and horses (I had some 
forty horses of the finest breed) were sold by auction. All 
my silver and gold ware were confiscated by the Govern- 
ment. All our jewelry, even the last ring on my Ranee's 
[Princess] finger was taken away. There was a chapel dedi- 



32 



cated to Krishna in our Palace, in which my folk worshiped 
daily. The British Commissioner forbade them to worship 
here and the chapel was closed." 

All this was done merely in suspicion. Later, the Rajah 
was brought to trial in the Benares conspiracy case and 
acquitted. However, he was again charged with having bro- 
ken the rule of interment by having on one occasion left the 
Palace where he was interned without giving notice to the 
Commissioner, and for this offense he was sentenced to two 
years' imprisonment. 

Reprinted from Issue and Events, New York, Nov. 7, 1916 
and from Boston Daily Advertiser. 



HINDU PRINCES 

By RAM CHANDRA 



—Boston Daily Advertiser, August 15, 1916 
Articles have appeared recently in the public press, 
conveying the idea that to give self-government and parlia- 
mentary rule to British India would produce disturbance in 
those states which are under native rulers, and that these 
rulers are really independent sovereigns, vassals to the 
British Crown only in the sense that they cannot wage war, 
contract alliances or carry on relations with foreign govern- 
ments, save through the suzerain power. Great Britain. 

The only disturbance it could create in these native 
states if universal suffrage were granted to Colonial India 
would be an agitation for the establishment of democratic 
rule in the native states. As the people in this country believe 
in democratic rule, they could not look upoil such agitation 
otherwise than with approval. As to the native rulers being 
independent sovereigns, as described above, I will give the 
following facts : — 

In the first place there are only two independent states, 
Nepal and Bhutan, which are located in the foothills of the 



33 



Himalaya Mountains. The population of Nepal is 2,000,000, 
that of Bhutan 35,000. These two small states have defeated 
the English three times and still maintain their independ- 
ence. The writers of the articles to which I refer, evidently 
had in mind what are called feudatory states. These states 
are semi-independent, but their rulers must do nothing con- 
trary to the wishes of the British Government. There is a 
British official called Resident or Agent located at court 
who has supervision of everything that is done by the 
Maharajas. As illustrations of the so-called independence 
of these Rajas and Nawabs, I will relate the following: 

Zafar Ali Khan, editor of a magazine in Hyderabad, the 
largest state in India, who was receiving a monthly stipend 
of 200 rupees from the Nizam, the native ruler, was thought 
to be a member of the Nationalist party by the local English 
agent. Consequently, the Agent notified the Nizam that 
Zafar must be deported from the state. The Nizam could 
not do otherwise than obey. However, he continued the 
monthly stipend. Later the exile attempted to establish a 
paper at Lahore in the Punjab province. After a few months 
publication the paper was confiscated and the editor interned 
without trial. He remains interned at the present time, un- 
able to write anything for publication ; the monthly stipend, 
however, still continues. 

Another interesting story illustrating the independence 
of the native rulers concerns the Maharaja of Kashmere, the 
second largest state in India. The infant son of the Maha- 
raja, heir to the throne and the only son, fell sick. The 
British resident notified the Viceroy, and a physician was 
sent from Lahore to take charge of the case. The child grew 
worse and when it was evidently about to die, the Maharaja 
wanted to call another doctor, but was not permitted to do 
so. Finally the Maharanee refused to allow the Government 
doctor to treat the child any longer. This was regarded as an 
affront to the British Government. The Resident summoned 



34 



the Maharaja to appear before him where he was condemned 
to pay a fine and to apologize to the physician. Moreover, 
he was ordered to discharge the Royal Chamberlain, the 
oldest and most trusted of the Maharaja's staff, but suspect- 
ed of having nationalistic ideas. 

The minor Nawab of Bahawalpore was ordered by the 
Viceroy to be sent to England for "education." It is well 
known in India what is the result of this "education;" how 
the young princes educated in England become saturated 
with British ideas and prejudices and only too often become 
corrupted by European vices, losing all feeling of loyalty to 
India. For these reasons and also because the young Nawab 
was not in good health, his old mother desired to keep him 
in India. Nevertheless the British official came and in spite 
of every protest carried him off. An appeal was made to 
the Viceroy who did not even send a reply. The mother 
sent several telegrams to King George, who finally replied 
that he could do nothing. So much for the boasted independ- 
ence of India's rulers. As to the lesser Rajas and Princes, 
I will simply mention the fact that Raja Mehandra Partep 
Singh of Brandaban, who is reported to have joined the Ger- 
man Army against the British in Europe, could not secure 
a passport to leave India (according to M. Munshi Ram, Gov- 
ernor of Gurukala, Hardwar, and Anglo Indian Press of Cal- 
cutta). 

The Raja was the founder and president of Brindaban 
National University (Prem Mahavidhyala). His paper, 
"Narmalsewak," has been confiscated, and his property has 
been taken over by the Government. 

The following notification is issued in the Gazette of 
India, Home Department : 

"Whereas, the Governor-General in Council, for reasons 
of State, within the Preamble to Bengal Regulation III of 
1818, judges it necessary to attach the estates or lands of 
Raja Mahendra Partarb Singh, and being the son of the last 

35 



Raja Jhan Sain Singh Bahadur, and adopted son of the late 
Raja Har Narayan Singh Bahadur, now therefore, under 
section 9 of the aforesaid Regulation, the Governor-General 
in Council is pleased to declare that the estates or lands 
described in the schedule hereto annexed have been so 
attached, and to direct that the same shall be held and man- 
aged as provided by section 10 of the said Regulation." 

In spite of the restraining hand of England, which 
interferes with every effort the Hindus make towards prog- 
ress, more headway has been made in the feudal states than 
in the British India provinces. So far from fearing that to 
establish parliamentary rule in the provinces would create 
trouble, in the feudatory states, the situation is exactly the 
reverse. The first concession of this kind has been made in 
the state of Beekineer, where a parliament has been estab- 
lished. The Gaekwar of Baroda and the Maharaja of Mysore 
have already passed laws to establish free compulsory edu- 
cation. These are the things which are creating trouble in 
the British India provinces. The general feeling in India as 
to the difference between native rule and British rule can 
be seen in the following statement taken from an address 
of ex-Justice Chandavarkar of Bombay High Court, who has 
served as Prime Minister in two different states. The Jus- 
tice says : 

"When I was Prime Minister of the Indore State I was 
struck by an extraordinary incident. There were villages, 
side by side, some belonging to the Indian State and others 
to the British Government. The people in the State pre- 
ferred to remain where they were. I inquired into the rea- 
son of this strange phenomenon and I was told: 'We are 
largely left to ourselves ; we are not bothered with the round 
of visits from the police, now from the excise department, 
now from the revenue department, and now from the Depu- 
ty Commissioner. ' ' ' 

The Modern RevieTv of Calcutta writes : 

"The people like to remain under their Indian rulers, 



36 



because they are not over-governed, not interfered witk too 
often and thus have greater opportunities of managing their 
affairs themselves. In British India no sphere of human 
life and activity is proof against or free from the inquisitive- 
ness, meddlesomeness and vigilant watch of some official or 
other. They directly or indirectly meddle in all affairs — 
religious, social, educational, moral, political, or industrial. 
Such is not the case perhaps in India India." 

In a lecture delivered at York by Dr. H. A. L. Fisher, 
Vice Chancellor of Sheffield University, on January 31, the 
speaker states: "These states furnish one of the finest in- 
stances in history of the blending of western and eastern 
methods. Where they are well governed there was found 
an air of happiness and ease, and he ventured to think that 
the population, on the whole, was happier and more comfort- 
Such is not the case perhaps in Indian India." 

In one respect similar testimony is borne by Wilfred 
Blunt in his work on India under Lord Ripon when he says 
that 'Hhe subjects of the Native States are materially bet- 
ter off than the people of British India. * * * Educa- 
tion is more widespread in a few Indian states that in British 
India." 



A REPLY TO SIR FRANCIS 
YOUNGHUSBAND 

Who Says the Writer Has Always Tried to Stir Trouble 

Against British Rule in India. 

By RAM CHANDRA 

—Boston Daily Advertiser, October 10, 1916 

Sir Francis Younghusband in an interview with the 

New York Times' London correspondent, published Ang- 

gust 8th, 1916, criticises my letter published in the Times of 

May 22d, 1916. Referring to my statement that two Hindu 



37 



princes had been arrested for sedition during the war, 
Sir Francis objects that these persons are not ruling princes, 
but merely landowners with the title of "Rajah," and 
accuses me with trying to convey the impression that they 
are to be classed as princes with power over States. 

I would like to say that in this respect I am in the same 
position as the British Government. The Prince who has 
been mentioned most conspicuously by the Government to 
illustrate the loyalty of the ruling princes in India is Raja 
Partab Singh of Idar who is reported to be at the head of 
the Hindu troops in France, is likewise only a landowner, 
with the title of Rajah. While there are of course only 
about forty reigning princes in India, there are in all some 
700 with the title of Rajah. The 670 have had the title 
bestowed on them by the British Government because of 
their conspicuous wealth and influence, and further as a 
means of securing their loyalty. If the British Government 
is entitled to call attention to special instances of conspicu- 
ous loyalty on the part of any of these, I also am entitled 
to show evidences of disloyalty among them. The evidence 
is conclusive as to the two cases which I mentioned, seeing 
that one, the brother of the reigning prince of Daspala, has 
been imprisoned for life, and the Rajah of Kharwa has been 
condemned to two years ' imprisonment. I may also mention 
the case of Rajah Pratab Singh of Hathras, who is reported 
to have joined the German Army against the British in 
France (according to the Anglo Indian papers of Calcutta). 
Sir Francis also claims that the leaders of the educated 
classes are substantially loyal to the Government. In an- 
swer to this, I will say that the loyalty of India as a whole 
is the loyalty of a prison. As to the educated classes, the 
leaders of thought, it is sufficient to mention the suppression 
of nearly 350 newspapers and the confiscation of their press 
and property. Since the war began the Government began 
a campaign of house searches. No home, no matter how in- 
fluential its owner, escaped the attention of the police. The 



38 



residence of Hans Raj, the principal and president of the 
Dayanand Arya University of Lahore, was overhauled by 
the police in the most thorough-going fashion. His entire 
library — one of the most noted collections in the Province — 
was ransacked. Numerous literary and scientific volumes 
were taken away by the ''search party." The motor car 
of the Hon. Nawab Shams Ul Hudda was searched as he was 
going to pay a visit to the Viceroy at the latter 's request. 
The office safe of the Hon. Surendra Nath Banner jee. Editor 
of the "Bengalee," principal of Ripon College, the great- 
est Swedeshi orator, and strangest of all, a member of the 
Viceroy's Supreme Legislative Council, could not remain 
immune from the police scrutiny. How the common people 
fare at the high hands of the police when "big men" were 
thus treated, may be better imagined than described. 

Sir Francis denies my claims that four hundred Hindus 
have been executed, eight hundred transported for life and 
ten thousand interned without trial, and asserts that only 
forty-six have been executed, forty-two transported for life 
and three thousand five hundred and ninety-six interned. 
This is quite an admission. Prior to my charge not a single 
telegram came from England or India admitting officially 
that any one had been executed. Now that there has been 
an accusation made by my statements, they admit a fraction 
of the truth. Today they admit forty-six executed ; tomor- 
row they will admit more and eventually my assertion will 
be found to be true. 

Sir Francis says that only forty-two were transported 
for life. The official report of the trials at Lahore sho,ws that 
sixty were transported for life in the first Lahore conspiracy 
case and two hundred transported in the second Lahore 
conspiracy case. This makes two hundred and sixty, with- 
out mentioning trials at Calcutta, Ambala, Meerath, Hung, 
Multan and Ceylon, when hundreds more were hanged, shot 
or transported for life. In Ceylon, four hundred and 
twelve were tried before court martial, and eighty-three 



39 



had been sentenced to death, according to Bonar Law and 
Steel Maitland in the British House of Commons. If the 
disparity between the figures of Sir Francis and the other 
officials is so great in regard to those executed and trans- 
ported for life, it is evident that my estimate of those in- 
terned is conservative. I am reminded of the fact that the 
mutiny in Daspala State was not allowed to be reported in 
the newspapers of India until after four months elapsed. 
Not only is it a fact that news of England's entrance into 
the war was witheld (Sir Francis to the contrary, notwith- 
standing), but the death of Lord Kitchener was held back 
for two days and news of the naval battle in the North Sea 
for six days. The Indian papers such as Bengalee and Patrika 
vigorously complain of all these delays. 

In referring to my letter, Sir Francis says it was ' ' writ- 
ten by one of a group of revolutionary inciters, who always 
have tried to stir trouble against British rule in India" and 
he also says ''what the revolutionists leaders failed to do at 
the outbreak of the war they are still trying to do now— 
from a safe distance." This is an echo of the statement of 
Mr. Bevan Petman, Crown Prosecutor at Lahore revolution- 
ary trial that: "This conspiracy could not be separated 
from the 'Gadar'," * * * 

''The idea of a rising in India had come into existence 
before 1913. In fact, it had originated in 1907, and the con- 
spirators included Har Dayal, Ram Chandra, Barkat Ullah 
and Bhagwan Singh. * * * Seditious literature pub- 
lished in and outside India. ' ' 

We very cheerfully admit all this, but we wish to em- 
phasize the fact that all we are doing is to preach Liberty, 
Equality and Fraternity, the birthright of every human 
being, and to awaken the world to a realization of the en- 
slaved condition of India, where these great principles are 
denied to all. 

The same was published in Issue and Events. 

40 



Blind Loyalty is Myth. 

By RAM CHANDRA 



Declares People Are Starving and Progress Repressed by British Rule. 

—The Spokesman-Review, July 16, 1916 

I have noticed the report in the Spokesman-Revien?, 
Spokane, Wash., of an interview of the Sun's London cor- 
respondent with Sirdar Daljit Singh of the ''India Office" 
(London). 

Mr. Austin Chamberlain has evidently tired of the un- 
holy work of misrepresenting India and has turned it over 
to one of his Hindu grooms. 

Like 98 per cent, and more, of my fellow countrymen 
I hold the Sirdar in too much contempt to relish the idea 
of making a reply to him. But silence on my part may be 
misconstrued in the United States, where "India is still a 
land of mystery. ' ' 

Sirdar Daljit asserts : 

1. That 98 per cent of the Hindus are "loyal" to the 
British. 

2. That they are becoming more and more prosperous 
under British rule and 

3. That the "oriental" has a peculiar penchant of 
personal loyalty to the ' ' sovereign. ' ' 

4. That only "46" men out of three hundred million 
have been executed for political crimes in 1915 ; and only 
300 interned. 

5. Lastly, the Sirdar asserts that he knows his country- 
men well, having held various government posts. 

Says Statements False 

Now each of these statements is either utterly false or is, 
strangely enough, most damaging to the Sirdar's argument. 
The Sirdar says the agrarian population is growing more 
prosperous. If this be true, then there is a great hope for 



41 



the success of the coming revolution. Extreme poverty 
militates against progress. If it be true that education is 
spreading fast among the masses, then there is till more 
hope for the success of the coming revolution. Extreme ig- 
norance has been the cause of India's enslavement. 

Peasants Not Growing Prosperous 

Unfortunately it is not true that the peasants of India 
are growing more prosperous, in spite of the "irrigation 
works" of which Daljit Singh speaks. The Sirdar himself is 
innocent of any knowledge of economics or sociology, and 
has conned by heart a few sentences prepared for him by the 
British consulting economist of the India office. 

The 'irrigation system" is far too inadequate for the 
needs of the country. The land is becoming more and more 
impoverished, through intensive cultivation, and the entire 
economic rent, that is, from 60 to 70 per cent of the net land 
produce, is taken by the government as land revenue. Then 
this "land revenue" is subject to periodical revisions (settle- 
ments) which always result in an increased land tax. 

The British government in India is a "single taxer." 
"The land belongs to the government," hence the cultivation 
must give up the entire net produce. In governmental 
theory and practice, land revenue in India is not an income 
tax, but economic rent. (Ricardo, it will be remembered, 
defined "rent" as that portion of the produce of the earth 
which is paid to the landlord for the use of the original and 
indestructible powers of the soil.) 

Population Gets Steadily Larger 

Again, by a simple biological process, population in- 
creases but land does not increase in size. India is an old 
country where every inch of soil has been under intensive 
cultivation for centuries. An acre which yesterday barely 
supported four persons is required today to support six per- 
sons. It can't be done. 



42 



The only solution can be industrial development. But 
Lancashire and Manchester manufacturers are dead against 
the growth of Indian industries. There are in India, accord- 
ing to the last census, over 40,000,000 agrarian proletariat 
who are nearly always unemployed. They die like flies ever}/ 
week of each passing year, of famine and pestilence. The 
was has greatly increased the economic misery. Fresh 
and heavy taxes have been levied. Forced loans have 
been raised. Vast sums of money have been extorted from 
poor Hindu states. Hindu princes who have given fabulous 
sums to British war chest have after all obtained their 
wealth from their over-taxed suffering subjects. 0, the hor- 
ror of it all ! 

Daljit Singh refers to the innate ''loyalty to the sov- 
ereign" of orientals. I repudiate emphatically this ugly 
charge. Daljit Singh's slave psychology makes him think 
that we are all like him. No, we are not ! The people of 
India hate tyranny and oppression exercised by monarchs, 
landed aristocrats and British bureaucrats as much as any 
other unsophisticated honest people, accustomed from time 
immemorial to democratic communal life in their village 
republics. If there is any sentimental loyalty, it affords an- 
other proof of the evil nature of British rule. Loyalty to 
the war-lord, king, viceroy, or raja is medieval and barbaric. 
Now, of course, the whole story of British rule in India is 
this: About 200 years ago the powerful British medieval- 
ism succeeded in conquering the traditional Indian medieval- 
ism. British medievalism, then, and the remnants of Indian 
medievalism (representing Daljit Singh), are the great ad- 
versaries against which the people of India have to wage 
a fierce strife. 



43 



Tranquility of India the Tranquility of 
a Prison. 

— San Francisco Examiner, June 13, 1916 

E. F. Shewring, prominent banker of India, at the 
Palace with Mrs. Shewring, is quoted in the Examiner of 
of June 3rd as saying : 

"That the unrest in India was mainly caused by stu- 
dents who have been studying in foreign countries and re- 
turned to preach sedition. ' ' 

"These men are all under lock and key, or have been 
executed," he says, "the unrest has died down and India is 
tranquil. ' ' 

Permit me to present, in contradiction to this denial of 
the revolt which is seething through all India, official state- 
ments from British sources, concerning outbreaks about 
which not a line has thus far appeared in public print. I 
refer to a recent mutiny in the island of Ceylon. 

The following is taken from the proceedings in the 
British House of Commons: 

Mr. McCuUom Scott (M. P.) asked the Under Secretary 
of State for the colonies "how many cases arising out of 
the recent riots in Ceylon were tried before court-martial." 

Mr. Steel-Maitland, the Under Secretary : ' ' The number 
of persons who were tried before court-martials was 412." 

How many of these were condemned and executed is not 
known, for the British censor has not permitted a line of 
this revolt to become known, although Bonar Law recently 
informed Parliament that eighty-three persons had been 
sentenced to death by the court-martials which were still 
sitting. 

I quote again from the proceedings before the House of 
Commons : 



44 



Colonel Yates: "As for Ceylon, the ghastly and terri- 
ble mutiny there was the result of sending out as Colonial 
Secretary a young elerk from the Colonial Office with only 
ten years of service." 

Sir J. D. Rees, asked whether there was any further in- 
formation regarding the suggestion that he had made that 
the recent riots in Ceylon, which had been of a rather seri- 
ous character, had their origin in German intrigue. 

Mr. Steel-Maitland replied: ''It is quite possible that 
German intrigue was at the bottom of the rising in Ceylon. 
As far as could be seen, whatever might have been the effect 
of German intrigue, that rising was a matter of plotting. It 
might have started on the anniversary of Buddha's Day. 
The rising took place amongst the Cingalese, who constituted 
two-thirds of the population. ' ' 

Mr. Bonar Law, British Secretary for State for the 
Colonies made the following statement in "The House of 
Commons ' ' on the Ceylon situation : 

"Martial law was proclaimed in the Western Province 
and the Province of Sabragama on June 2 and in the Cen- 
tral, Southern and Northwestern provinces on June 3. As 
far as I am aware these proclamations are still in force." 

Does this outbreak appear to have been only the work 
of "students who had been studying in foreign countries 
and had returned to preach sedition?" 

Martial law exists over all India. The press is muzzled. 
The censor rules supreme. The real facts of conditions are 
concealed as long as possible, and even when they cannot be 
longer concealed from the members of Parliament them- 
selves, they are minimized in every possible way. Thus, in 
his farewell address, the retiring Viceroy of India, Lord 
Hardinge, said: 

"In Bengal and Punjab there has been a regrettable 
number of political murders and dacoities which dim the 
fair fame of these provinces." 



45 



" It is very well knoAvn that murders and dacoities were 
much more rife in the Punjab than in Bengal," writes the 
Patrika, a loyal daily in Calcutta. ''It is also a well known 
fact that the revolution is of a graver character in the for- 
mer than in the latter. Nay, if the official acts are to be 
believed, something like a second Sepoy Mutiny was con- 
templated in the Punjab." 

Again, the Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, Sir 
Michael O'Dwyer, when he could not hide the facts, said: 
''It would be idle to disguise the fact that for several months 
we have had to deal with certain abnormal, but I hope transi- 
tory, features that occasioned serious anxiety to the gov- 
ernment. We have been confronted with a conspiracy or- 
ganized to subvert the authority of the Government of 
India, and especially in this province, and to pursue that 
nefarious scheme by murder and rapine, by use of the bomb, 
the dagger and the revolver. The prompters of the move- 
ment appear to have been inspired by the German policy 
of "f rightfulness." Their professed object was to terror- 
ize the administration, but their main line of action has 
hitherto been to rob, and in some cases to murder, to pro- 
vide funds for their war chest. 

"But while we are busily employed in checking this 
dangerous movement in the central Punjab, another storm 
burst in an unexpected quarter. In the districts of the 
Southwestern Punjab a section of the Mohammedan rural 
population, agriculturists and menials, took advantage of 
the panic to begin a campaign of lawlessness and looting 
combined with arson. The dacoities, while they lasted, 
were very serious. 

a ^ * # rpj^g spirit of disorder spread with amazing 
rapidity over the south of Jhang within a few weeks, before 
the police force on these remote and hitherto orderly tracts 
could be strengthened sufficiently to cope with all the dacoit 
bands. Over 1000 arrests have been made in the three dis- 
tricts (Jhang, Mazaffergawh and Multan) alone." 



46 



No seditious students or America returned laborers but 
India's rural population revolted in ''this unexpected quar- 
ter." 

In Singapore, where the outbreak was more serious 
than elsewhere, the Hindu soldiers revolted. One regiment 
that mutinied was the Fifth Light Infantry, a regiment 
recruited mainly in districts not far from Delhi. The regi- 
ment attacked its commanding officers, and the fighting con- 
tinued three days. Fifty of the rioters were killed. The 
soldiers fired upon every Englishman they saw, as revealed 
in a discussion of the outbreak by Mr. Gersham Stewart in 
the House of Commons recently. He says : 

''Five mutineers walking a road said to a colonist: 
'Are you English?' and he said, 'No, I am Irish,' and they 
said, ' ' let him pass. ' The mutineers were not out to loot, 
because they left untenanted houses alone and they shot 
Englishmen in houses where Dutchmen were close by. Their 
attack, therefore, was certainly, levelled against British 
power and British people. It was worthy of notice that the 
mutineers went to the internment camp and after shooting 
down the guards, broke open the gates and flung in rifles to 
Germans, calling out : ' German ! German ! Islam ! Islam ! ' " 
Ceylon, the Punjab, Singapore! These places are far 
apart. Cingalese, Hindu agriculturists, soldiers from 
Delhi! Can it be true, in the face of these admissions by 
the British officials, and members of the House of Commons, 
that the unrest in India was due to a few students or labor- 
ers who had returned from foreign countries to preach sedi- 
tion, and has not been quieted? 

The Ner» York Sun quotes Lord Hardinge as saying 
that political controversies concerning India have been sus- 
pended by the educated class. In regard to this it must not 
be forgotten that martial law prevails in India and that 
more than 350 newspapers have been confiscated and their 
leaders interned. "Tranquillity" of this sort is not good 
evidence of loyalty. Lord Hardinge 's statement is quoted 



47 



that "no fewer than 300,000 men were sent out of the coun- 
try to Imperial battlefields." He does not state, however, 
how many English and Colonial troops have been sent to 
India in their place. We know it to be a fact that several 
Canadian officers have been killed in the conflict on the 
Northwestern Frontier. The tranquillity of India is the 

tranquillity of a prison. 

RAM CHANDRA. 

The same was published in Issue and Events. 



HINDUS HANGED 



History of Hindustan Gadar. 

Political Parties in India. 
By RAM CHANDRA 

The India described in the British official dispatches is 
not the real India. She is neither "loyal" nor "tranquil." 
India is seeking its way to complete independence, even 
though that way lies through bloodshed and insurrection. 
The agitation against the British Government has grown 
tremendously since the outbreak of the European war. Nei- 
ther did the Government begin in a conciliatory mood. The 
authorities took steps, immediately the war began, which 
resulted in the suppression of nearly 350 newspapers and the 
confiscation of their presses and property. The people took 
to publishing newspapers secretly and to organizing con- 
spiracies. The Government began a campaign of house to 
house searches. No home, no matter how influential its 
owner, escaped the attention of the police. The residence 
of Hans Raj, the saintly principal and president of the 
Dayanand Arya University of Lahore, was overhauled by 
the police in the most thoroughgoing fashion. His entire 
library — one of the most noted collections in the Province — 
was ransacked. Numerous literary and scientific volumes 



48 



were taken away by the ''search party." The motor car of 
the Hon. Nawab Shams Ul Hudda was searched as he was 
going to pay a visit to the Viceroy at the latter 's request. 
The office safe of the Hon. Surendra Nath Banner jee, Editor 
of the "Bengalee," principal of Ripon College, the greatest 
Swedeshi orator, and strangest of all, a member of the Vice- 
roy's Supreme Legislative Council, could not remain im- 
mune from police scrutiny. How the common people fared 
at the high hands of the police when "big men" were thus 
treated, may be better imagined than described. The 
Amrita Bazar Patrika of Calcutta, writes the following in a 
in a recent issue : 

"We have been crying and crying till our voice has be- 
come hoarse for putting a check to the indiscriminate search 
of houses by the police. But they come, they come, still 
they come." 

The people in their rising wrath soon began a "reign 
of terror," to correspond with that of the Government. In 
rapid succession followed wholesale looting, dacoities, riots, 
mutinies (in the native Army) murders of police and officers, 
of English civilians and military, and particularly of "loyal" 
Hindus. The Government began a policy of wholesale ar- 
rests. The regular judicial procedure was suspended (as 
early as March, 1915). Anyone towards whom the Govern- 
ment entertained the slightest suspicion was "interned" by 
executive mandate. Special tribunals, consisting of three 
military officers in most cases, were instituted for the trial 
of "political offenses." No appeal was possible from the 
decisions of these courts which held their proceedings in 
camera. That these special tribunals were kept busy may 
be understood from the' fact that in less than a year some 
400 men were sent to the gallows, about 800 imprisoned for 
life with hard labor, and some ten thousand "interned" by 
direct executive order, i. e., without any judicial procedure 
whatever. 



49 



American Returned Revolutionists 

Some of the Hindus who had been residents in the 
United States returned to India at the beginning of the war. 
They were arrested and hanged or imprisoned for life. The 
prominent among them were the following : 

Kartar Singh, Hindu aviator, who learned the art of 
aviation in "New York, hanged. According to Mr. Petman, 
the Crown Prosecutor, Kartar Singh was on the staff of the 
Hindustan Gadar of San Francisco ; made bombs and explo- 
sives, organized political riots and dacoities and helped to 
carry them out. An active revolutionary, he designed a flag 
for his fellow conspirators which was to typify an India free 
from British rule. 

Kanshi Ram, contractor in Oregon, U. S. A. According 
to Mr. Petman, plotted for the ''removal" of several police 
officials in Frozepore, gave $1000 to the Hindustan Gadar 
of San Francisco, and took $10,000 to India with him to help 
finance the revolution against the English rule. The money 
was confiscated and Kanshi Ram hanged. 

Nidhan Singh lived for 20 years in China and America 
where he was regarded as a very influential man. According 
to the Crown Prosecutor, Nidhan Singh successfully got 
arms into India from China after the outbreak of the war; 
plotted several dacoities and outbreaks ; organized and took 
part in looting the British Treasury of Moga, Punjab — sen- 
tenced to penal servitude for life. 

Solian Singh, a great religious leader. Lived five years 
in Oregon, U. S. A. — charged with giving support to the 
Hindustan Gadar — sentenced to death (commuted to life 
imprisonment). 

Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, a student at Washington Uni- 
versity, Seattle; according to the Prosecutor Petman, was 
arrested while inciting a native regiment to revolt. Had 
in possession several bombs. Hanged. 



50 




Jagat Ram 



Nidhan Singh Prof. Parmanand 



Jk 


■1 


Mk 



Jowala Singh 



Kesar Singh 



Parithvi Singh 



Piyara Singh 



Sohan Singh 



.^^V ^^^H 
^^^^-« 


Jr 


^ 



Besa Kha Singh 




Inder Singh Udaham Singh Mangal Singh 

The above are among the 5000 who have been imprisoned 
for life during 1915 and 1916. 



Sohan Lai, a student at Corvallis Agricultural College, 
Corvallis, Oregon, arrested with two loaded revolvers and 
Gradar literature. Sohan Lai was a school teacher in India 
before coming to the United States. Hanged. 

Gurdit Singh, leader of 400 Hindus who came on the 
steamer Kamagata Maru to Canada. They were all refused 
landing and were turned back to India. At Calcutta they 
were fired upon by British soldiers. Several were killed. 
The fate of Gurdit Singh is not known, probably shot. 

Kehar Singh; so severely beaten by the police that he 
died in jail. 

Professor Bhai Parmanand, of the University of the 
Punjab, Lahore, educated at Cambridge, England, student 
of medicine in the University of California, supposed to be 
a revolutionary leader. Sentenced to be hanged, but on 
account of his popularity which would have doubtless led to 
serious trouble for the Government, the sentence was com- 
muted to imprisonment for life in the Andaman Islands. 

Kesar Singh, ex-British soldier, veteran of Malakand 
and China, well known in Oregon, imprisoned for life. 

Jawala Singh and Besakha Singh, well known wealthy 
ranchmen near Stockton, lived 15 years in California, and 
Inder Singh, priest; penal servitude for life. (Charged with 
being supporters of the Hindustar Gadar.) 

Peyara Singh, very popular among the Hindus in Van- 
couver, B. C. Life imprisonment. 

Jagat Ram, formerly a member of the Hindustan Gadar 
staff, found with several thousand dollars when arrested, 
for purchasing arms; sentenced to be hanged (afterwards 
commuted to imprisonment for life). 

Having learned that a few Hindus from California were 
among the revolutionists who have been hanged in India, 
many people seem to take it for granted that the revolt in 
India was ''hatched" in the United States. This is not true. 
The Hindus who returned from America were but a few out 
of many hundreds hanged and imprisoned. It was natural 



51 



that men who came in contact with the republican institu- 
tions of America should have been readily caught up in 
the revolutionary maelstrom. But to hold them responsi- 
ble for the vast unrest in the country would be absurd. None 
of the leaders of the Delhi conspiracy, for instance, who 
suffered the extreme penalty had ever been out of India. 
They were : 

Amir Chand, eldest son of Rai Hukum Chand, the cele- 
brated Hindu jurist and High Court Judge in the Hydrabad 
Deccan, head master of the Mission High School at Delhi, 
an educator and social reformer of Northern India for the 
last thirty years; hanged. 

Abad Bihari Lai, B. A., B. T., head master of the Hindu 
High School at Delhi, a noted mathematician of the Punjab 
University ; hanged. 

Bal Mukand, B. A., the tutor of the Raja Sir Pirtab 
Singh of Idar's sons and head of the Famine Relief Society 
of the Punjab ; hanged. 

Bisant Kumar, a prominent Lahore physician; hanged. 

Hanwant Sahai, banker and proprietor of the Lakshimi 
cotton and silk handloom factory, Delhi; imprisonment for 
life. 

Bal-Raj (M. A.) eldest son of Hans Raj, president of 
Dayanand Anglo Vedic University. Imprisonment for life. 

The sensational and epoch making conflict between the 
active revolutionists and the British Government is going 
on with sustained intensity. It has come to light in one of 
the latest conspiracy trials that some of the wounded Hindu 
soldiers joined the rebels on their return from the European 
battlefields. The revolt has spread among the highest no- 
bility and aristocracy of the land. Among those who have 
been declared rebels by the Government are the three Hindu 
princes : 

(1) The brother of ruling Prince of Despala, (Oressa) ; 
imprisoned for life, his numerous followers hanged. 



52 



(2) Eaja Gopal Singh of Kharwa, Rajputana, arrested 
in the Benares conspiracy case; charged with giving arms 
and money to conspirators. Sentenced to two years impris- 
onment. (His ancient lineage and powerful connections 
account for a comparatively light sentence.) 

(3) Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, of Brendraban- 
Hathrus, is reported to have joined the German Army to 
fight against the British. 

A number of misleading reports have been circulated 
in this country by the British official news agencies, which 
have a direct bearing on the work of our paper, the "Hindu- 
stan Gadar." Newspapers have published here that the up- 
risings which have thrown India into turmoil were ' ' hatched 
and plotted" by the staff of our paper. 

The object of the British Government in spreading such 
misinformation is twofold: 

First — To bring us, if possible, into trouble with the 
authorities of this country. 

Second — To persuade the civilized world to believe that 
the political unrest in India has been manufactured artifi- 
cially by a few Hindus who have lived abroad, and is not 
a natural reaction on the part of the people of India as a 
whole against the unbearable tyranny of the British Gov- 
ernment. 

The truth of the matter is quite the reverse. British 
rule in India is in grave peril. The revolt in India is as 
widespread as it is indigenous. It has not been artificially 
hatched by the handful of Hindus who have come out of 
their country in search of a meagre living or of education. 

Hindustan Gadar. 

As regards the work of The Hindustan Gadar, there 
has never been any secret. It is published by the Hindu 
residents of the United States and of other countries outside 
India, and is an uncompromising advocate of complete politi- 
cal independence and liberty for India. 



53 



It was established in November, 1913, its first editor 
being the famous Har Dayal, former Stanford professor, who 
is generally regarded as the leader of Young India. Har 
Dayal worked so zealously and effectively that the British 
Ambassador appealed to the United States Government to 
have him arrested. Accordingly, he was arrested in March, 
1914. but the action was never brought to trial. Strong public 
protests were made in the newspapers against this action 
of the Government. In April, 1914, Har Dayal left this 
country and went to Europe. Since then I have acted as 
editor. Suddenly the war broke out in Europe. Soon Lord 
Hardinge, Viceroy of India, and Austin Chamberlain, Secre- 
tary of State for India, began to mention our paper in their 
speeches and then the American Government, which had 
already from the beginning barred our paper from being 
mailed to India, still further restricted our activities by 
refusing to forward it to any of the British Colonies. The 
Post Office likewise refused to forward to India or the 
Colonies copies of William Jennings Bryan's pamphlet on 
India which we had republished, and in which he says Brit- 
ish rule in India is worse than Russian rule in Russia. We, 
of course, are obliged to conform to the orders of the Gov- 
ernment. Nevertheless there are nearly one million readers 
of the ''Gadar" outside of India and the British Colonies 
and through their efforts many copies penetrate into India, 
thence to Afghanistan, where, according to Manila, P. I., 
newspapers, they were distributed among the Afghan sol- 
diers fighting against the British on the frontier. The 
^'Gadar" has penetrated also to Persia, Turkey and even 
to the ranks of the British Hindu Army in France, as the 
following quotation from the "London Times History of 
the War ' ' will show : 

"Another hail of sheets marked the descent from heav- 
en of the Gadar, an inflammatory journal published by an 
Indian revolutionary society in San Francisco. The authors 
of this poisonous leaflet have long been trying to sow the 



54 



seeds of sedition in the army of the Punjab. 'Ghadar' in 
Urdu means 'Rebellion.' The copies that were rained upon 
our troops urged them to raise the standard of revolt in 
Hindustan. ' ' 

Our readers are so loyal and enthusiastic to the cause of 
Indian freedom that they have succeeded in making the 
Gadar well nigh omnipresent. 

Causes of the Revolution 

The civilized world would never believe when I say 
that the British Government draws 500,000,000 rupees an- 
nually from India and the Hindus have become so poor that 
the average annual income of a Hindu is only 27 rupees 
($9.00) according to Lord Curzon and but 15 rupees ($5.00), 
according to Sir William Digby. A Hindu soldier, school 
teacher or a policeman gets 9 rupees ($3.00) a month. Now 
the question will arise, if this is the case, how can the Hindus 
live. The answer is, the Hindus are not living, they are 
dying, owing to the British rule. Nineteen millions died of 
famine and fifteen millions died of plague and malaria, 
according to Sir William Digby from 1891 to 1900. 
When invidious legislation and counter vailing internal 
duties destroyed the home industry of Hindustan, 40 million 
people were thrown out of work and forced into agriculture. 
A Hindu agriculturist is forced to pay from 60 to 70 per 
cent as land tax ; being unable to pay the taxes, and to avoid 
untimely death, a few who have had the necessary means 
have left their children and wives and have gone out to 
Canada, Africa and Australia. But the British Government 
could not bear to see these few a little prosperous in these 
colonies. New laws were enacted to exclude the Hindus 
from Canada, Australia and Africa. Hindus protested. In 
the Fiji Islands and British Guinea Hindus were shot dead 
like dogs. Hindu women and children were sent to jail in 
South Africa, and a shipload of Hindu men and women 



55 



were kept for weeks in Canadian waters and after all sent 
back to India. 

Now every Hindu, rich and poor, educated and peas- 
ants alike, have become well aware of the fact that there is 
only one cause for India's degradation and humiliation in 
the world and that is the British rule. The Hindus, an 
ancient civilized race, who used to feed ants, monkeys and 
birds, who on account of their kindly nature do not kill ani- 
mals, have been transformed into the fierce revolutionists 
of to-day, killing as many Englishmen as they can, so un- 
bearable has British tyranny become. 

What the Hindus Want 

There are three chief political parties in India : First — 
The Moderate Party which seeks for colonial self-govern- 
ment, like Canada and Australia, which is denied by the 
British Government in their repeated parliamentary re- 
ports. Lord Morley, when Secretary of State for India, 
said that India's desire for self government is like a child 
reaching for the moon ; and Lord Hardinge, former Viceroy, 
on leaving India, said that self government for India is im- 
possible. Statements like these coming to the knowledge 
of the Moderate party has caused even that party to lose 
confidence in British Government, but through fear they 
have hitherto hesitated to take openly a bolder position. This 
party includes Rajas, Princes and other Hindu British offi- 
cials. Second — The Nationalist Party, which seeks for inde- 
pendence and separation from the British Government 
through passive resistance; they don't believe in promises of 
the Government. They want their own Government regard- 
less of what kind it may be ; whether Monarchical or Demo- 
cratic. Third — The most formidable and powerful party, 
the Gadar party, which seeks total autonomy and absolute 
freedom through revolution. They have no hope that any- 
thing can be achieved by begging from the Government, or 
passive resistance. They seek to establish the free Republic 



56 



of the United States of India. The important fact of the 
present days is that these three parties are rapidly consoli- 
dating into one with the single purpose of breaking away 
from British rule. 

British reports say that the Hindus prefer English rule 
to the German rule and they hate the Germans. This is abso- 
lutely false. The Hindus do not hate the Germans ; the Ger- 
mans have not done any wrong to the Hindus. On the con- 
trary, they would welcome the Germans if they came as 
liberators. One thing should be kept in mind— that the 
Hindus detest the British rule and will never be satisfied un- 
til British rule is destroyed and India is free forever. 

For publication in Cartoon's Magazine, Chicago. 
The same was published in part in the Nezv York Times 
and New York Sun. 



LOOTING BY THE BRITISH 
IN INDIA. 

By RAM CHANDRA 

— Boston Daily Advertiser, September 12, 1916 
A letter from George L. Fox, published in the Springfield 
Republican, in praise of England's rule of India and Egypt 
is being used as propaganda material in support of English 
rule in India. There are some statements in this article that 
should not go unchallenged. Mr. Fox in this article calls 
attention to a statement by Mr. Charles H. Barrows that 
''Brute force seated England in India and brute force, step 
by step, extended her power over that country until India 
has become her great $150,000,000 cow for yearly milk- 
ing • " * * * 

The latter part of this statement implies that this amount 
is drawn by taxation from India to England, and Mr. Fox 
challenges anyone to furnish reliable authority for such a 
statement. The statement of Mr. Barrows was not made 



57 



in this sense but rather means the sum total of revenue ex- 
tracted from India by England every year not only by taxa- 
tion but in all ways and this figure has been certainly so esti- 
mated by competent authorities, such as Sir William Digby, 
C. I. E. ; Mr. Hyndman and Mr. Alfred Deble. Let me quote 
from Adam Brooks (Laws of Civilization and Decay, page 
259-246) : ''Very soon after the battle of Plassey (fought in 
1757) the Bengal plunder began to arrive in London and 
the effect appears to have been almost instantaneous. Prob- 
ably since the world began no investment has yielded the 
profit reaped from the Indian plunder. The amount of 
treasure wrung from the conquered people and transferred 
from India to English banks between Plassey and Waterloo 
(fifty-seven years) has been variously estimated at from 
$2,500,000,000 to $5,000,000,000. The methods of plunder 
and embezzlement by which every Briton in India enriched 
himself during the earlier history of the East India Company 
gradually passed away, but the drain did not pass away. 
The difference between the earlier day and the present is 
that India's tribute to England is obtained by 'indirect 
methods' under forms of law. It was estimated by Mr. 
Hindman some years ago that at least $175,000,000 is 
drained away every year from India without a cent's re- 
turn. ' ' 

Mr. Alfred Webb (late M. P.), who has studied the 
subject with care, says: "In charges for the India office 
(in London) ; for recruiting (in Great Britain, for soldiers 
to serve in India) ; for civil and military pensions (to men 
now living in England, who were formerly in the Indian 
service) ; for pay and allowances on furloughs (to men on 
visits to England) ; for private remittances and consign- 
ments (from India to England), there is annually drawn 
from India, and spent in the United Kingdom, a sum calcu- 
lated at from 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 pounds. (Between 
$125,000,000 and $150,000,000.) 



58 



The significance of the drain from India by taxation 
does not lie alone in the greatness of the total sum, it must 
be considered in the light of the financial condition of those 
who have to pay the tax. The tax is severe in proportion to 
the poverty of the people. In India not only are the masses 
of the people in extreme poverty, but the greatest authorities 
inscribe the intensity of this poverty to taxation itself. 

Rev. J. T. Sunderland, in his work, ''The Causes of 
Famines in India," like all impartial writers, has proved 
conclusively that neither "failure of rains," nor "over- 
population, ' ' is the cause of famines in India. He has stated 
that the real cause of famines is the extreme, the abject, 
the awful poverty of the Indian people caused by the 
"ENORMOUS FOREIGN TRIBUTE," "British Indian 
Imperialism," and the destruction of Indian industries." 

Sir William Hunter, K. C. S. I., in the Viceroy's Coun- 
cil, 1883, says: 

"The government assessment does not leave enough 
food to the cultivator to support himself and his family 
throughout the year. ' ' 

Hindustan is an extensive agricultural country, the 
average land produces two crops a year, and in Bengal 
there are lands which produce thrice a year. Bengal alone 
produces such large crops that they are quite sufficient to 
provide ALL THE POPULATION OF HINDUSTAN FOR 
TWO YEARS, and yet Mr. Herbert Compton in "Indian 
Life," 1904, says: "There is no more pathetic figure in the 
British Empire than the Indian peasant. His masters have 
been unjust ever to him. He is ground until everything has 
been expressed, except the marrow of his bones." 

Mr. Fox denies also the statement that England holds 
India by brute force. His argument is that an army of 
75,000 men, only one-sixth of whom are Englishmen, could 
not hold in subjection 300,000,000. As a matter of fact the 
army before the war numbered 300,000, of which more than 



59 



75,000 were English. Mr. Fox seems to forget that India 
has been disarmed, and the English have posted powerful 
batteries overlooking all the large cities. 

Sir James Bryce, ex-Ambassador at Washington, in 
his book ' ' The Roman and the British Empire, ' ' writes : 

"(English) society is not in India as it is in England, 
an ordinary civil society. It is a military society, military 
first and foremost. . . . The traveler from peaceful 
England feels himself, exjeept perhaps in Bombay, sur- 
rounded by an atmosphere of gunpowder all the time he 
stays in India." Not only the Hindus are not permitted to 
possess fire arms of any description, they are not even per- 
mitted to possess long knives that could be used as daggers. 
During the unrest of 1907 there was police restriction in 
Bengal by which anybody found having in his possession a 
stick large enough to be used as a club should be arrested 
and fined. This was directed especially against young stu- 
dents. In cases where persons are found possessed even 
with small daggers, a punishment ranging from seven years 
to life imprisonment is inflicted. Even knowledge of fire 
arms must be kept from the people. Consider the following 
taken from the Bengalee, Calcutta, quoted in India, London, 
September 17, 1915 : 

Child Sentenced for Playing With Toy Pistol 

"A five-year-old boy of Mushiganj Road, Kidderpore 
(Bengal), had a toy pistol purchased for him for one anna 
(2 cents). On August 8th, last, a child was playing with it, 
but could not explode the paper cap. A twelve-year-old lad 
showed him how to do it. The boy was at once arrested by a 
constable and marched off to the Watgani Thana (Police 
Station) with the toy firearm. The boy was eventually sent 
up for trial at Alipur and the Court (English Judge) fined 
him three rupees (one dollar)." 



60 



Reliability (!) of English Reports. 

How England Deceives Even Her Own People. 

—Boston Daily Advertiser, July 17, 1916 

The British Government has tried hard to conceal the 
truth from the English people as well as the neutrals. Such 
have always been their tactics. The most notable instance 
I remember was of the days of 1857. That great Hindu Re- 
bellion broke out, as is well known, on May 10, 1857. On the 
11th of June of that year, the president of the Board of 
Trade said, in reply to a question in the British Parliament 
that ''there was no reason for anxiety as regards the late 
unrest in Bengal. By the dexterity, firmness and quickness 
of my noble friend. Lord Canning (Governor-General of 
India), the seeds of unrest have been completely rooted out." 

Now, on the very date that the Parliament heard those 
optimistic words, in India, 11 cavalry regiments, five field 
batteries of artillery, at least 50 regiments of infantry, etc., 
had arisen in revolt; the Province of Oudh had fallen in 
their hands. Some news of these happenings had found 
their way to the English public. Another question was asked 
in the Parliament, with special reference to the massacre of 
the English at Cawnpur on the 14th of August, 1857— that 
is, one month after the Cawnpur episode— and this was the 
reply made by the Earl of Granville :— 

"I have received a personal letter from Gen. Sir Patrick 
Grant that the rumor about Cawnpur is altogether untrue, 
and is a vile fabrication. ' ' 

The Hon. Austin Chamberlain and Lord Hardinge are 
doing exactly what their "distinguished ancestors" did. 
It is true that the British are still in India, but this does not 
prove that India is "loyal" to them. On the contrary, the 
movement to oust them is gaining strength daily. Of 
course there is a small — insignificantly small — number of 

61 



"loyal Hindus" whom the Government has pampered with 
gold and titles. Pratep Singh, an ignorant Rajput soldier 
of fortune, has been made a ruling prince by the British; 
a new state, that of Idar, was created for him. He is an 
''Hon. Major General" of British Army and has a long row 
of titles before and after his name. He has received his 
guerdon for following the British flag in all its murderous 
career of aggression and exploitation. The Government 
uses him now as a procurer to decoy young Rajput chiefs. 
Out of three hundred million starving people of India the 
British can always get a few police gendarmes and mercen- 
ary troops to watch and murder their own brethren; just as 
the Belgians did in Congo when Mark Twain wrote his satire 
on King Leopold. 

Mr. Austin Chamberlain, in one of his recent pronounce- 
ments to the American people, quoted a Hindu gentleman 
named Sinha as pledging his loyalty, and that of his fellow 
countrymen, to the English cause. Who is this man, Sinha? 
He is a Government prosecutor and a knight of the realm. 
Sir S. P. Sinha is a ''smoked" Englishman. So, apart from 
these traitors to their race, who obtain "high positions" 
through sacrifice of the most elementary principles of self- 
respect, honesty and social sense, India is becoming more 
and more rebellious. Surely, though against great odds, she 
is preparing to overthrow the hated yoke of foreign tyranny. 

RAM CHANDRA. 

The same was published in part in the San Francisco 

Examiner. 



62 



Gadar Publications 



India Against Britain 

a Reply to Austin Cham'berlain, Lord Hardinge, Lord Islington, 
etc. This pamphlet contains the essential facts concerning the 
unrest of 1915-16; causes of the uprisings, conditions of famine, 
taxation, education, oppressive measures of the Government, 
etc. Price, 15 cents. 

British Rule in India 

by William Jennings Bryan. In this pamphlet, the former 
Secretary of State, as a result of personal observation in India, 
says that British Rule in India is Worse Than Russian Rule in 
Russia. Price, 5 cents. 

A Few Facts About British Rule in 
India 

This pamphlet contains only statements by British authorities, 
showing the disastrous effects of British Rule. Price, 5 cents. 

Indian Police in the 20th Century 

This pamphlet reveals a police tyranny so unbearable to all, 
including women and children, that the civilized world will 
believe it incredible. Price, 5 cents. 

Photos of Revolutionists 

of 1857, blown from the mouths of cannon. 

Photos of Persian Revolutionists 

hanged by Russians and British. Photos of Hindu Revolution- 
ists executed or imprisoned for life during 1915-16. 



HINDUSTAN GADAR, San Francisco, Cal. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 946 016 2 



FOR FAVoUfI 

a.' 

- 'VIEW- 



